20 lakh units of power disappear into thin air per day in Old City

Hyderabad: Twenty lakh units of electricity a day.

That is the amount of power that disappears without a trace each day on average in the South Zone of Hyderabad, comprising Charminar, Begum Bazar and Asmangarh divisions as categorised by the Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Corporation Limited (TSSPDCL).

The cost of service for TSSPDCL for every unit of power it supplies to consumers is Rs 7, as per which the loss caused by meter tampering and pilferage, among other issues, works out to a mind-boggling Rs 511 crore per year in the South Zone alone.

In the recent Assembly session, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy made pointed references to energy losses in this zone, comprising mostly of the Old City areas of Hyderabad, and how MLAs representing constituencies in the Old City should step up to ensure the losses are stemmed and people begin paying their power bills properly every month.

He had also talked about a similar situation in the Gajwel and Siddipet constituencies, where, according to sources in the energy department, the annual supply cost from lost energy works out to around Rs 86 crore and Rs 118 crore, respectively.

According to data from the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a Central government organisation, in 2021-22, the Charminar division saw 46.1 per cent of all power supplied written off as “aggregated technical and commercial (ATC) losses” — power sector jargon for electricity that is either pilfered or not paid for — with around three to four per cent of supplied power accounted for legitimately as transmission and distribution losses.

For the Asmangarh division, the ATC losses were pegged at 34.82 per cent, and for the Begum Bazar division, the figure, according to BEE, was 33.6 per cent for the same period.

“The biggest problems in the South Zone are tampering of meters and people not paying their bills. Then, there is pilferage by people drawing power through hooks linked up to power lines. For example, there is a colony in Saidabad that falls in Asmangarh division where because of these problems, power is not supposed to be supplied but people continue to draw electricity illegally through hooking,” a source in the energy department said.

The source added that the problem is not restricted to a community and that everyone who can get away has been doing so. “There is an urgent need to crack the whip on meter reading staff, who are appointed by outsourcing companies, who either do not bill them properly or collect some money from users to avoid disconnecting connections for unpaid bills,” the source said.

Asked what steps were being taken to correct the situation, sources said that with the new government making it clear that past practices will no longer be allowed, a clean-up act of some staff, strict compliance with billing protocols and cutting down pilferage were on the cards.